The Art of Compromise
by TimeCougar
Summary: Two weddings, one alliance, no happiness. Naruto/Temari Gaara/OC


So, I've decided to try my hand at this, if it is worse than eating toe jam, pm me and i'll remove it. If you like it comment, yah, I'd like that.

AN: I do not own, you do not sue. Got it? Good. :)

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It was a beautiful day in the desert oasis of Sunagakure. A young man in his late teens walked down a long stretch one might call a hallway. He walked quickly as to not be late for such an important meeting between villages. For he was the Kazekage, and as Kazekage, he must not be late to this meeting. As he approached the end of the white stretch of space, he abruptly stopped. He turned to his left and in doing so he faced a door. The door was the only thing that separated him from the council at the moment. He drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out as he opened the door.

The occupants of the room looked at him as he entered. "Kazekage-sama." The head of council greeted him. The man nodded his head at the elder in response. The whole room waited, not daring to take a breath as the young man took his seat. The elders looked at each other and nodded, acknowledging that the other did exist. The Kazekage watched the interactions of the elders with little to no interest what-so-ever. He was more concerned with starting the meeting they had called him in for.

The head elder rose form his seat with a low grunt. "This meeting has now started." He took his seat back in chair slowly, being old did not have its perks. "Kazekage-sama, it has come to our attention that our alliance with Konohagakure will expire soon and neither of our village Kages seem to be doing anything about it. So as a council, we have decided the best for our village."

In a low voice that did not fade, the young Kazekage asked, "I am the will of the council. What needs to be done?"

The elder that had spoken before cleared his throat from discomfort. "We have arranged two marriages between our villages. Our, as well as their, village both had some requirements, per say, on the one who would get married. We wanted someone strong and powerful to produce good offspring who knew how to use fire and they wanted a strong, smart wind Kunoichi to teach at their academy. The age range the both councils agreed upon was 18-25 years of age." The old man with little hair took a deep breath. "Not many wind Kunoichi fall into that age range, we only found one who was decently strong, Sabaku no Temari."

You could have heard a pin drop in Kumogakure (Village Hidden in the Clouds). No one dared blink or breathe in fear of the dreaded Sabaku Kyuu and Sabaku Soso the master of sand knew. The Kazekage blinked. The rest of the room blinked. Then the Kazekage drew a breath and said, "You chose my sister. Why?" The man's eyes narrowed and light green-blue barely showed between two black eyelids. "I also have a feeling that there is a catch, what is the catch?"

The council knew they had to walk on eggshells at this point. It was well known that Sabaku no Gaara had become very protective of his siblings after the Ichibi no Shukaku had been extracted. His brother Kankuro had almost died from a poison that Sasori had injected him with. Luckily, Haruno Sakura had been there to extract it. "Well," the same elder as before started. "Their council wouldn't agree to have one of their Kunoichi come here without one of ours going there. So we talked it over and both councils agreed that each Kage would marry the other village Kunoichi."

Gaara didn't say a word as what had been said registered in his mind. His nee-san was marrying Namikaze Naruto. Then a wall of shock hit him even harder, he was also getting married…

Meanwhile, in Konohagakure, Namikaze Naruto was in a similar meeting. He was shocked over the Kunoichi the Konohagakure council had picked to send off to Sunagakure, one of his best friends, who was well known not to take to authority very well. He was fine with the fact he was marring an unknown Kunoichi, what he was not fine with was that council was sending, probably, the single worst behaved Kunoichi to his friend Gaara. Sure, she was nice to everyone she met, but when she thought that authority, or anyone really, was trying to dissuade her from doing anything, all hell would break loose.

It's not that she wouldn't obey from time to time, it's that she had a very hard time actually listening and carrying out the order. She had been used to doing everything her way, since her family had been killed by Orochimaru and she had been used as one of his experiments, animal-human hybrids. With the tail, ears and hearing frequency of a mountain lion, she even had a strip of sand colored fur running up her spine. He also gave her a speed similar to that of a cheetah and the strength of a lioness, since male DNA wouldn't have worked. She did thank him though, for restoring her eyesight, since she was almost blind when he kidnapped her for the experimental process. However, she did hold a grudge for killing her mother and half-sister, she claimed to be very close to the both of them but didn't seem to show any emotion when she had been told her step-father had been killed as well.

Naruto was also worried since she didn't take well to guys, especially new ones, he tried to ask why that was once but she had clammed up and wouldn't talk. She had been mad at him after that for a month or two but she seemed to have gotten over it.

"Why choose Akito? She wasn't even born in this village." Naruto glared at he heal councilman.

The man gulped, filling Danzo's place, after that man tried to pull a coup and kill Tsunade while they were in the middle of a battle with the Akatsuski, was not easy by any means people were suspicious of him now more than ever. "We chose her because of the qualifications Sunagakure's council put forth to the Kunoichi they would accept. Strong, between 18 and 25, and a fire element." Fire flashed in the Hokage's eyes.

"Many Kunoichi fall under those qualifications! I could name more than ten who are single at this moment in time other than her! You all know she might not be able to handle this! I think, no… I know you picked her to get rid of her since she likes making you all work twice as hard!"

"Taking confidential files, stealing ink, pulling pranks, even putting Yukio's bed in Konohagakure square with poor sleeping Yukio in it in the middle of the night, yes, we might have picked her to go because she's a bit wild, but nothing Suna cannot handle themselves." Hamiki, another elder piped up. "Besides, she always complains how this place is too cold, she'll love how warm it is in Suna!"

"That's not the point! The point is she won't know anyone there and she has a hard time making friends here as it is because people are scared of her appearance, we can't just send her off when she probably will resist when she finds out!" Naruto tried reasoning.

"I know you two are like siblings, Hokage-sama, however you have to understand that this is vital to the alliance." Head councilman said.

All the way back in Suna, a very upset confused Kazekage was walking back to his office with a file in his hand, the file of his fiancé. Council had given it to him so he could know the basics about the woman he was to marry. He still didn't understand why there was to be a dual marriage alliance. Council had given an explanation that sounded like if they sent over a spy, then if she was killed then the alliance wouldn't be hurt because one of the marriages was intact. Gaara still didn't understand the logic behind it.

Sighing as he opened his door, he wondered if the woman, whose name is Akito (which was a name that was strange to all of the people in the room since it is a male name), would be like all of his fan girls. He hoped not. He also wondered how Temari would take to the news she was to be married to Naruto. Last he heard, Naruto had forgotten Temari's name when he met her after returning from three years of training. A small smile graced his lips for a fraction of a second, very much like Naruto he thought. He sat in his chair and set the file onto the empty desk, since he didn't like encountering fan girls (and guys alike) he stayed in his office until everything that could be done, was. After a while, he had gotten so good at it he was done within four to five hours.

He looked down at the file, I might as well open it. He turned the front flap of the tan file onto the desk and the photo of the woman shocked him. She was wearing a snow-white hooded cloak with a sun medallion with a ruby as its center, as the pin that held both sides of the cloak together. She had golden brown hair and strangely colored eyes. Her eyes were grey, yet they were deep blue, it almost seemed like they changed depending on the angle they were viewed from. However, her eyes held a confused and saddened look to them. She seems…. Sad…. And dazed. She bore pale skin with a hint of bronze to it. Her lips were in neither a frown nor a smile.

He had to pry his eyes away from her picture and looked at the written information on the page.

"_Name: Akito (no surname)_

_Sex: Female_

_Rank: Secretary (Gennin) _Gennin? Gaara thought. They're marrying me off to a Gennin?

_Skills: Swordsmanship, stealth, taijutsu, 'rare fire ability', feline-like hearing/vocalization_

_Other: Started training as a medical officer but was kidnapped two years before graduation,_

'_Half-feline, half-human', Taught high levels of taijutsu and swordsmanship through family, Family killed before being kidnapped by-. _A restricted name?

_Familiar(s): One orange tabby called Neko-neko_

_Missions completed: 24 total; 16 D, 5 C, 2 B, 1A, 0 S _Nothing impressive.

_Missions failed: 9 total; 3 C, 5 B, 1 A_

_Weapon(s) preferred: Dual-bladed katana (family heirloom), strange necklace that seems to conduct electricity, 'fire summoning' (what Samantha calls it) _

This woman is not impressive at all, the Kazekage thought to himself. Why am I being married to her? A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. "Enter." He said as the door creaked open to reveal his sister Temari, with a slight frown on her face. She pulled a chair in front of her brother's desk and sat down with a low grunt.

She was silent for a while before speaking, "It's not fair." He looked up to read her expression, however, her face had too many jumbled emotions to be able to read well. "Forcing the four of us to get married to another, I- I just can't think of anything worse I could do with my future. Having a child with someone I barely know, let alone not even love, I just don't know if I'll ever be happy." Gaara looked on sympathetically towards his sister, he was about to reply when Temari spoke. "So who are you marrying?"

Gaara paused a moment, his sister was ready to cry one moment, then back to her normal self, "Her name is Akito."

"Akito?"

"Yes," he looked his sister in the eye. "You know her?"

"Yeah, she's Naruto's secretary. She dislikes the council and always steals or hides their stuff. According to Naruto and Sakura, she behaves almost exactly like Naruto himself. Naruto also told me that she hates authority and distrusts men. Looks like this will be your hardest mission yet."

Meanwhile, in Konohagakure, said kunoichi sneezed as she was eating miso soup with Naruto in his office. "Eww." She said seeing the result of her sneeze while having soup in her mouth. "Sorry, Naru-chan." Naruto had been in the spray of snot soup so his robes had many dots of questionable substance.

"It's not a big deal Aki-chan. Just needs to be washed is all." He said as he got up. "So how do you feel about… this?"

She glared at the back of Naruto's head. "Not much I can do but make the council's lives a living hell 'till I leave. But you were asking how I felt about marriage, huh?" Naruto turned his head and nodded. Akito sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Hate it. Hate the idea, hate the force, hate the fact I'll be worth 'less' than a man-"

"You won't be worth less than a man." Naruto interrupted as he slipped on an extra shirt.

"Still, I will have to play the perfect little doll. It's not fair, never even met the guy." She huffed while crossing her arms.

"Well, we all have to get used to this. I doubt they like it even more than we do, but I've met both of them, they're good people. Besides, he wouldn't hurt you, or I'd beat him up." Naruto flashed his foxy grin. Akito rolled her eyes. "Well we'll be meeting them at the boarder in two days for the ceremonies."

"Why the boarder?"

"So we can get married at the same time on our own turf. Now go rest and say your goodbyes, we leave tonight."

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So that's the first chapter. Reveiws would be lovely.


End file.
